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Sunday, February 23, 2014

Employee Development Planning - The #1 Resource in an Organization

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or
intellectually without effort, and effort means work. - Calvin Coolidge

A well-thought-out plan provides your employees with
opportunities and clear direction on how to increase their skills and advance
their careers. And with a more expanded skill set, they have more tools to help
your business forge ahead. It's a win-win for you and your staff. An employee development plan or program
shouldn’t be created off the cuff. The following are steps to take when
developing plan.

Consider your business
goals - Before you set objectives for employees, you should try to align their
development plan with your company’s needs. Otherwise, you and your employees’
efforts could be all for not.Start by
considering what your long and
short-term business objectives are. Then identify the necessary skills,
knowledge and competencies that support those objectives.By developing a plan around the future of the
business it identifies the skills sets needed, the development needed and
creating career paths through development demonstrates a commitment to talent
development and provides ability to retain top talent.

Talk to your
employees - Don’t assume you know your employees’ skill level and career aspirations.If possible, have a face-to-face discussion
with each of your team members to get a better understanding of what their
career goals are and how they think they can accomplish them.You should also talk about any challenges
they’re having in their current position. Have your employees do a
self-assessment of their work. In what areas do they struggle the most? Would
they benefit from additional training or mentoring?Some of your employees may already have a
career path in mind. But many times, they don’t know how to get started. By talking
to them, you can work together to figure out what role your business plays in
this plan as well as what opportunities you can offer them.

Decide what
skills your employees need - Once you’ve looked at each of your employees’ abilities and experience, as well
as your company’s needs, it’s time to decide exactly what skills each person
needs to acquire.Be sure to your
employees’ goals are specific and timely. It’s much more difficult to measure
an employee’s progress when their objectives are vague or broad.

Create an action
plan - Now that you know what the objectives are, it’s time to figure out how your
employee will go about achieving them.Developmental
programs can include a combination of activities such as formal training, reading,
working directly with subject matter experts, one-on-one coaching and
mentoring, and visits to institutions that offer specific development
opportunities. Once you’ve identified some specific learning opportunities, create a plan. First you need to consider what it’s going to
take to put your employee’s plan into action. Is there any prep work that needs
to be done? Is anyone else involved? Will employees need to take time away from
work? Will someone else need cover for them while they’re training?After you have all the details sorted out, it
can be helpful to create a schedule or time table so that employees keep moving
forward and continue to pursue their goals.

Apply the new
skills in the workplace - You’re spending a considerable amount of time and possibly money on helping
your employees improve their skills. To get your greatest possible return on
investment, your employees need to be able to put those new skills to work in
your company.Set up some opportunities
where your employees can quickly apply the new skills to the job and get
feedback. This will help them reinforce and refine their new skills. If they
don’t use the new knowledge when it’s fresh, they’re likely to lose it.

Summary
Creating a development program not only helps you make your workforce more
effective and knowledgeable, but you can also improve employee
satisfaction. And when your employees are happy, they're less likely
to go looking for work elsewhere.